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After two weeks of scraping and poking and prodding, we got the word on Mom’s lung nugget – the biopsy was negative. The docs also took some scrapings and slices from her throat, and the frozen sections from those were also negative!

Delightfully surprised – especially since the radiologist who was doing the poking into the lung kept referring to it as a ‘cancer’. It’s apparently some form of fibrosis. Not life threatening, nor is it even causing much of a problem with her lung capacity, since it’s pretty small.

The areas in her throat that were showing metabolic activity on the PET scan might be a result of gastric reflux. No worries there…

Throughout the entire process, Mom has been upbeat, and has really seemed to enjoy the attention. She was a little puckered up going into the lung biopsy, and was worried that the doc might decide to take out her tonsils should there have been a positive result on the initial throat biopsies…

Oh, and after every procedure or consultation? She’s always felt well enough to stop for a meal on the way home… As i’ve said before, my clan does not waste away.

For a variety of reasons, i’ve been unable to be there for most of the procedures. One reason? i haven’t been needed. During this entire process – from the first sign of a pulmonary loogie, through the last visit with the pulmonologist – my niece, DQ, has been on the job.

When Dad was tumbling through his medical gauntlet, i was point man. DQ was an able and high-functioning guard. What this false alarm has revealed that Mom’s gauntlet will be played a different line up. DQ is out front, and i will do my best to support her…

She’s earning her pay this month. And i haven’t been able to thank her enough for doing it…

That’s not to say there haven’t been a few giggles along the way. When i told my brother and his wife the good news? Their response was exactly the same as my sister, T, and her partner down in Florida. “Has anybody told BJ? Don’t want him to stop working on the renovations to the house…”

photo found here… although not particularly relevant, it always makes me laugh.